A heating torch is a tool or device that is used to heat up a substance quickly. Heating torches can be used in a wide variety of applications, including for heating up air, metal plastic, bitumen and other materials. Materials may be heated for a variety of reasons. Often a concentrated area of a material requires heating prior to molding, to harden, to soften or to solidify the material in question. An exemplary use of heating torches includes those used by jewelers for brazing when making or repairing jewellery. Another example includes the use of heating torches by road construction workers, who use heating torches for heating bitumen. Heating torches are also used in foundry work and other manufacturing applications.
Existing heating torches function generally adequately for their intended uses, although the applicant considers current heating torch designs to be deficient in a number of aspects. In this regard existing heating torches are relatively inefficient in burning fuel, which is usually in the form of a flammable gas. Part of this inefficiency is due to the existence of uncombusted fuel being expelled from existing torches into the atmosphere. Some of this fuel may be burnt in a relatively dispersed manner, which produces less usable heat at the at which it is desired to provide concentrated heat location and subsequently burnt in an elongated manner, rather than it being more precisely directed so as to be burnt at the intended heating zone. As can be appreciated, this can result in the use of significantly more fuel than necessary to heat the object in question. The burning temperature of the fuel is also undesirably lower, since the expelling fuel occupies a greater volume and so takes longer to combust. In an effort to address this problem, the use of some heating torches has included directing pressurized oxygen or air into a combustion chamber to facilitate a more concentrated combustion of fuel proximate the torch outlet. Such an arrangement does, however, undesirably increase the cost of equipment and the complexity of use of such equipment.
Another inherent problem noted in existing heating torches relates to ‘blow out”. In this regard, if the velocity of the fuel expelled from a heating torch is set too high then the fuel is unable to be lit. Similarly, if, during use, the flow rate of the fuel expelled from the torch is adjusted to too high a flow rate of fuel then the flame can become unstable and blow itself out. If this occurs then the torch must be re-lit.
Existing heating torches tend to produce a heating flame extending directly from the hand-held wand portion of the torch. As a result, the hand-held portion, particularly the tip thereof, has the potential to heat up and potentially burn the torch operator in the event that the operator inadvertently touches the heated portion.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a heating torch designed to burn fuel in a more efficient manner and with a potentially more concentrated heat when compared to existing heating torches.
It would also be desirable to provide a heating torch that is less likely to blow itself out when compared to existing heating torches.
It would be further desirable to provide a heating torch which is less likely to heat up and thereby create a burn hazard for the torch operator.